French authorities convicted the lone surviving member of a group that carried out a 2015 terrorist rampage across Paris on Wednesday, finding him guilty of all charges, including murder and terrorism, and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The hearing of the individual is considered to be the biggest criminal trial in modern French history. The court found that the suspect, identified as Salah Abdeslam, played a key role among the men who deployed explosives and assault rifles as they targeted the Bataclan concert venue, a national stadium, and several restaurants and cafes.
Terrorist Suspect Convicted
The incident took place on the night of Nov. 13, 2015, and resulted in the murder of 130 people and the injury of hundreds of others. Later, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bloodsheds, which were France's worst terrorist attacks since World War II.
While the attention of the public during the 10-month trial was focused on Abdeslam, who is a Belgian-born French citizen, 19 other suspects were believed to have been perpetrators and accomplices and also charged. Five of them are presumed dead and one is imprisoned in Turkey, as per the Washington Post.
Out of the 20 defendants, 19 were found guilty of all charges on Wednesday, with punishments ranging from suspended sentences to life in prison. The court also sentenced the 32-year-old Abdeslam to the harshest form of a life-in-prison sentence under French law, an extremely rare punishment that will make parole almost impossible.
Lawyers representing the victims of the terrorist attacks in 2015 welcomed the severity of the court's ruling. Gerard Chemla said that Abdeslam's sentence is symbolic and extremely rare because it sanctions extremely serious events.
According to CNN, during the hearing of the verdict, Abdeslam did not appear to react to his sentence while Farid Kharkhach, who was convicted of a lesser charge, cried after hearing his verdict.
Horrific Attacks
The verdicts of the suspects are a culmination of a lengthy trial that began on Sept. 8, 2021, and involved more than 330 lawyers and roughly 1,800 civil parties, said the French Justice Ministry. The proceedings took place in a purpose-built courtroom inside the Palais de Justice in central Paris.
The trial included testimony from first responders who described the horrors that they observed at the Bataclan concert hall and at bars and restaurants in the city. Survivors also spoke of their desperation as they tried to hide from the terrorists in fear for their lives. Family members of the people who were killed recalled how their anxiety turned to sorrow as they learned of the death of their loved ones.
Dominique Kielemoes, whose son bled to death in one of the attacked cafes, said that the assassins or terrorists thought they were firing into the crowd, into a mass of people. She said that hearing the testimonies of victims during the trial was "crucial to both their own healing and that of the nation."
She argued that the attackers were not firing into a mass of people, but a group of individuals who had their own lives and had hopes and expectations for the future, CBS News reported.
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